AFL Finals 2017: Lance Franklin turns it on in second quarter, booting four goals

LANCE Franklin averages 4.5 goals per match against Essendon.

On Saturday, it took just 20 minutes during the second quarter to reach this allotted number. And what an insane 20 minutes it was.

Remarkably, his purple patch came just minutes after he suffered a bad corky.

Clearly hampered after a collision with Brendon Goddard, he limped to the bench in the first term, was strapped up and then trudged back on favouring his left leg. If his opponent Patrick Ambrose breathed a sigh of relief then it would have been short-lived.

Because in the second term, it took just four minutes for the seven-time all-Australian to kick three goals. Later in the quarter he made it four majors.

In the time it takes to say ‘Why is Patrick Ambrose still on Buddy,’ the game was gone. There were others involved, of course. Sydney piled on 10 goals to register its biggest quarter of the season.

It was also the club’s equal best second term ever. But Buddy was the story as he often is.

“As we saw in that second quarter it looked like he was going to be out of the game,” former teammate Jarryd Roughead said on Fox Footy.

“But as soon as that second quarter came along and he got three or four shots on goal, we knew he wouldn’t be going to the bench to get ice on that quad.

“He just wanted to be out there for the side.”

Lance Franklin. Picture. Phil HillyardSource: News Corp Australia

Franklin took some painkillers to alleviate the problem and sat on a still bicycle for the entirety of the quarter-time break, but Jason Dunstall refuted suggestions these measures allowed him to dominate from the outset in the second quarter.

“I’m not sure it’s the Panadeine that works,” Dunstall said.

“I think when you get a couple of kicks under your belt, you get a bit of momentum in your game up and running and it makes everything a little bit easier to handle. He owned the second quarter.”

Before this elimination final, Franklin had booted 64 goals in just 14 games against Essendon, a record that includes two hauls of nine majors. The Bombers had every right to be worried and it was Ambrose who was given first crack ahead of Michael Hurley or Michael Hartley.

It backfired despite the forward donning a thighpad that looked as if it had been collected from the indoor cricket nets at the SCG.

But it was Buddy who started the rot and he did so on one leg. His thighpad looked as if it had been.

Franklin is a big game player, even when hampered by injury. This second quarter was a shot across the bows.

Geelong and then Adelaide, beware.

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